• Record Label: Capitol
  • Release Date: Oct 22, 2013
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 26
  2. Negative: 0 out of 26
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  1. Oct 24, 2013
    60
    Perry’s ballads are so unadventurous and heavy-handed (chiming U2 guitars and slow-building, reverbed drums), they start to feel like caricature anyway. Her approach works better on the feel-good half of the album made up of top-notch roller-disco anthems.
  2. Oct 21, 2013
    60
    Prism [is] a tighter, cleaner record than its predecessors--there are no extremes here, nothing that pushes the boundaries of either good taste or tackiness.
  3. Oct 21, 2013
    60
    There is no doubt that Prism will do exactly what it’s been created to do (sell millions, provide the backdrop for a lucrative tour and make a lot of money for a lot of people) but it’s safe and cold where it should have been daring and involving.
  4. Oct 21, 2013
    60
    Many of these more, ahem, contemplative songs may be thin on Perry's former playfulness and long on the stuff of Eckhart Tolle, but a kind of girly simpatico sustains them and transfers easily to the stronger tracks, where Perry's back in the game.
  5. 60
    Although it is largely the entirely predictable modern dance-pop creation you might expect from production-line hit maestros Max Martin and Dr Luke, Katy Perry deserves some credit for injecting a modicum of originality into Prism.
  6. Oct 17, 2013
    60
    She largely sticks to her tried-and-true pop template, each song tailor-made for mass consumption with mixed results.
  7. Oct 17, 2013
    60
    The single Roar is ruthlessly efficient in its bid to get the drunk and recently dumped member of the girls' night out party up on the table, using her WKD bottle as a microphone, and the rest of the album follows suit: if the ballads are standard issue, the faintly trap-inspired Dark Horse sounds like a hit single, as does Birthday and, for better or worse, the new jack swing parody This Is How We Do.
  8. Oct 16, 2013
    60
    Perry has always done a great job of letting us know she's in on the joke of pop stardom. Sadly, she doesn't always bring that same sense of humor and self-awareness to the joke of pop-star introspection. The album's raft of ripe-lotus ballads is larded with Alanis-ian poesy she can't pull off.
  9. Oct 22, 2013
    58
    As a whole, Prism is forgettable. It’s neither good nor bad, and it’s not inspirational enough to set anyone on fire who’s not already an 11-year-old girl, closeted teen boy, or existing Perry fanatic.
  10. Oct 22, 2013
    50
    This is a pivot, this record, and a shrewd one, but "shrewd" and "boring" are not mutually exclusive.
  11. Oct 21, 2013
    50
    Though not exactly spiritual, Prism does come off as a more serious--if no less formulaic--album than its predecessor. But being taken seriously may be Perry’s greatest challenge yet.
  12. An album with too many cooks in the kitchen and not enough good songs to recommend.
  13. 42
    Prism does have two bright moments of success when everything comes together and we get a glimpse of the better-written album that could have been. First is opener “Roar.”... Meanwhile, on the mostly lackluster Side B, there’s another empowerment anthem, “Love Me,” that’s the polar opposite of “Roar” in nearly every other way.
  14. 40
    Everything that is missing from [Lady Gaga's Artpop] is here, but everything that is good about it is spectacularly absent from Prism.
  15. Q Magazine
    Nov 22, 2013
    40
    Prism feels transitional, the work of an artist clever enough to be restless, yet unable to split from a winning formula. [Dec 2013, p.110]
  16. Oct 29, 2013
    40
    There is little in the way of actual technique or subtlety, and as an album, Prism falls short of its predecessors in the innovation and charisma department.
  17. Oct 21, 2013
    40
    With Prism, those expecting a sequel to Teenage Dream are getting exactly that: the same tropes, themes, and even some of the occasional production tricks all carry over, Perry revealing nothing new about herself, but still mining the same songwriting vein she’s been at without any signs of slowing down. For her fans, it’s exciting. For anyone else, it’s a disappointment.
  18. Self-help and sauce remain the remit, which might have been less tiring if “Roar”, “Walking on Air” and “This Moment” offered forms fresher than, respectively, the robo-stutter of Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, weary Italo-house pianos and strenuous stadium bluster to enliven their empowerment-speak.
User Score
7.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2180 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Oct 22, 2013
    10
    much ballad, very cheerful music
    songs of self control and music to make it clear that you send.
    Congratulations katy. music highlights It
    much ballad, very cheerful music
    songs of self control and music to make it clear that you send.
    Congratulations katy.
    music highlights
    It Takes Two, and Love Me Roar course
    Full Review »
  2. Oct 22, 2013
    2
    It seems like the album was made for a unique objective: Charts. Devoid of any artistic intention, Prism is just another album with someIt seems like the album was made for a unique objective: Charts. Devoid of any artistic intention, Prism is just another album with some mainstream songs that probably will be on top of the Billboard Hot 100. Full Review »
  3. Oct 22, 2013
    10
    The musical evolution of Katy's from the songs 9 16, she really let the light in, not so cormecial as "Teenage Dream" and not as organic asThe musical evolution of Katy's from the songs 9 16, she really let the light in, not so cormecial as "Teenage Dream" and not as organic as "One of The Boys", she finally found herself artistically. Full Review »